Latest Cases

European Union – Competition. The Court of Justice of the European Union set aside, in part, a judgment by the General Court of the European Union, dismissing the applicant's application for annulment of a decision in which the applicant company and its subsidiary had been fined for participating in competition infringement within the EU, to the extent that the General Court had not brought the fine imposed on the applicant into line with the fine imposed on it's subsidiary. 

European Union – Trade marks. The General Court of the European Union dismissed the action brought by Reed Exhibition Ltd (Reed) against the decision of the Fifth Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) concerning an application by Reed for registration of the word sign 'INFOSECURITY' as a Community trade mark. 

Contempt of court – Committal. The Family Division struck out an application to commit the respondent to prison for contempt of court, in circumstances where there was a serious defect in the order upon which the application to commit was based, and it was not a situation where the procedural defect could be waived. 

European Union – Regulations. The General Court of the European Union ruled on the application by Iran Liquefied Natural Gas Co., for annulment of Council Decision 2012/635/CFSP, amending Decision 2010/413/CFSP (concerning restrictive measures against Iran), and of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 945/2012, implementing Regulation (EU) No 267/2012 (concerning restrictive measures against Iran) in so far as those acts concerned it. 

Family proceedings – Reporting. The Family Division ruled that the risk of 'jigsaw identification' was not a reason in itself to withhold the publication of a judgment of the Family Court. Accordingly, it held that a family judgment, which had previously been withdrawn from circulation to the public, should be published in its original format, with a reporting restriction order prohibiting the names of the children and their present whereabouts being reported. 

Order – Variation. The Commercial Court ruled that the claimant British Virgin Islands (BVI) company, which had been struck off the register in the BVI, continued to have capacity as a claimant, entitling it to bring proceedings. However, it dismissed the company's application to vary an order, which required the company to give security for the defendants' costs of proceedings concerning an insurance claim where there was no material change of circumstances and where to do so would result in the court substituting its assessment for that which the judge had made. 

Costs – Orders for costs. The claimant challenged the order that he pay the defendant Secretary of State her costs of £400 for acknowledgement of service and summary grounds. The Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), in dismissing the application, gave guidance on the application of the indemnity principle to the Secretary of State and the Government Legal Department. It then held that there was not the remotest scope for the argument that £200 per hour was an unreasonably high rate. 

European Union – Freedom of movement. The Court of Justice of the European Union made a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of art 56(1) EC. The request had been made in proceedings brought by F.E. Familienprivatstiftung Eisenstadt (Eisenstadt) against the decision of the Austrian Independent Finance Tribunal, External Section, Vienna, that had refused Eisenstadt the right to have gifts paid to beneficiaries resident in other member states taken account of in calculating a tax to which Eisenstadt had been subject in respect of the 2001 and 2002 assessment periods. 

Housing – Homeless person. The Administrative Court gave guidance on the proper interpretation of s 188 of the Housing Act 1996, notwithstanding the fact that the issues in the judicial review were academic. In particular, it held that, if a housing authority had secured an offer of suitable temporary accommodation, ordinarily, it would have performed its statutory duty under s 188 of the Act, notwithstanding an applicant's refusal of the offer. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The Family Division granted the husband permission to appeal from an order made in financial remedy proceedings arising out of the parties' divorce, on the ground that an event within Barder v Barder (Caluori intervening) ([1987] 2 All ER 440) (Barder) might subsequently have occurred and the conditions in Barder were or might be satisfied.